For 'worst of the worst' we seek ultimate punishment

The death penalty is a subject on which almost everyone seems to have a strongly held opinion.

People generally are either strongly in favor or strongly opposed to the death penalty.

However, it is the law in Ohio and as the elected prosecutor for Hamilton County, I will enforce it.

The purposes of the death penalty were set forth by the U.S. Supreme Court in Gregg v. Georgia, a death penalty opinion:

"The instinct for retribution is part of the nature of man, and channeling that instinct in the administration of criminal justice serves an important purpose in promoting the stability of a society governed by law. When people begin to believe that organized society is unwilling or unable to impose upon criminal offenders the punishment they 'deserve,' then there are sown the seeds of anarchy – of self-help, vigilante justice, and lynch law. Indeed, the decision that capital punishment may be the appropriate sanction in extreme cases is an expression of the community's belief that certain crimes are themselves so grievous an affront to humanity that the only adequate response may be the penalty of death."

Ohio's current death penalty was enacted in 1981. It was drafted in a fashion as to limit the number of homicides to which capital punishment applies. Conviction is followed by a lengthy appeal process, often exceeding 15 years.

Opponents cite the possibility of executing an innocent person.

There is no credible claim that Ohio has executed an innocent person.

The lengthy review described above concludes with a clemency hearing, allowing the governor to commute sentences out of mercy or doubt as to degree of guilt.

Opponents also argue that it is not a deterrent.

However, in a 2006 study by Emory University professors, they found that executions had a highly significant negative relationship with murder incidents and that implementation of state moratoria is associated with increased incidence of murders.

Another criticism of the death penalty is that it is disproportionally applied to racial minorities and the poor. This simply is not true.

This argument has been thoroughly debunked. It is based on the false assumption that homicides are committed in a ratio equal to a racial group's percentage of the population, and that if blacks make up only 20 percent of the population, they can only make up 20 percent of those on death row.

As recently as 2007, Department of Justice studies have shown that blacks make up 50 percent of those charged with homicide, but only 42 percent of those sent to prison with a death sentence. Since 1981, Ohio has executed 53 inmates, 63 percent of whom were white.

Race of the defendant plays no part in the capital charging process. In McCleskey v. Kemp, the Federal District Court, the Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court concluded, after reviewing vast statistical data, that neither the race of the defendant nor the race of the victim had any impact on charging or sentencing decisions. This holding is supported by a 2006 RAND Corp. study that concluded that decisions to seek the death penalty are driven by characteristics of crime rather than by race. Unfortunately, this false racial disparity argument is permitted to go unchallenged by media that simply repeat it without checking its veracity.

One recent example of a case where I sought the death penalty was that of serial killer Anthony Kirkland. Kirkland brutally and savagely murdered four women in our community – two young girls and two older women. He was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of the two young girls. The murders were horrific as he beat, burned and sexually assaulted his victims. It is for cases like Kirkland's that I seek the death penalty.

The best and strongest argument for the death penalty is, as the U.S. Supreme Court said, for some crimes, it is the most appropriate penalty.

The death penalty is the law in Ohio and I will seek it in those cases that my office deems to be the "worst of the worst" and for which society demands the ultimate punishment. ■